I Wish

Today’s song is not a Christmas song but in the first few lines it tells what Christmas is really all about. Stevie sings about Christmas saying, even through somethings we would not get a thing, we were happy with the joy the day would bring. Imagine that little kids that wouldn’t get anything for Christmas.  Can you fit all of your Christmas gifts under your tree, or does the presents overflow into half the room?

Each year the local mall has what they call the Angel Tree. On this tall tree are tags provided by the Salvation Army of people in need, you are to take a tag and go buy what is on the tag then bring it back to the for the Salvation Army to give your gift to the needy people on that tag. A few weeks ago someone made a post on Face book that said,” I’m not going to get anything off the Angel Tree since those kids parents are walking around with I phone 10s!  Of coarse,the I phone 10 wasn’t even out yet when this person made their post which they were so proud of. Where do these people get this attitude about the poor. It’s sad to say but a lot of people get this attitude from church. If you go to what we call a megachurch or watch a TV preacher, there is a good chance that you are listening to what we now call a WEALTH & HEALTH preacher. Their entire doctrine is based on John 10-10 where Jesus says “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly  These preacher say that you can’t have an abundant life being poor so this means Jesus wants your to be rich.  People just love hearing how Jesus wants them to be rich, there are sport arenas that used to have the NBA playing in them but not are full, more than once a week. with  people who are being told Jesus wants you to be rich. This false doctrine that is being preached all over our country, but just because it’s popular, and millions of people believe this false doctrine, doesn’t mean that’s it’s right. If this doctrine is right what does it mean to poor people? If this is right it means Jesus must hate poor people — just like the Republicans! In order for this doctrine to be correct you have to ignore much of words of Jesus in the Bible, this bit of scripture is never read at any megachurch or on TV. Matthew 25;40 Jesus says Verily I say unto you, Insomuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. I think this destroys this person excuse for not going to the Angel Tree. If you are a Christian or call yourself a Christian, you are to give to others without excuse. I would think that it might be a good idea to go to the mall and take off a name or two or three,  from the Angel Tree because there are kids, close by in our city, just like little Stevie Wonder who this Christmas will not get a thing, but you can have something to do about it. And then maybe you could find the joy the day could bring.

Wonderful Christmastime

Today’s another Christmas song, I’m not posting a Christmas every day because we all would get tried of Christmas songs. Todays song is  a Wonderful Christmastime  by Sir Paul McCartney, which will be one of many song of the day by the Beatles and other songs from all of the formal Beatles. In fact after Christmas I will devote a full week to the Beatles.

This is of mine favorite Christmas songs, even if Sir Paul repeats simply having a wonderful Christmas time 15 times, well at least there is not a danger that anyone will ever say “What’s the name of that Paul McCartney Christmas song?” I was a senior in high school when Sir Paul came out with this song but now it’s an old Christmas song.  OK I guess when you think about it 1979 was a long time ago.  I’m planning on having a wonderful Christmastime this year because unlike last year my whole family will be together. Just take  my word for it last year was a very bad Christmastime for my family, Christmastime without your whole family is not a wonderful time. This year God has once again was brought our family together so I trust that my family will have one of the most wonderful Christmastimes ever. I hope that you and your family will have a wonderful Christmastime.

Just you and Me

Today’s song chorus says Just You and Me, simple and free. This Chicago song was wrote back in the 70s, the video may give you a clue that it was the 70s. This song was written long before the internet. Today we have the wonderful internet and the internet has changed the meaning of the words- simple and free. Love ,they used to say, is the most misused four letter word Today thanks to the internet that word would now be free.  Look at all of the free stuff you can get on the internet. A few weeks ago I was in need of a legal document. That wouldn’t be hard, just get one off the internet, I was able to find several sites that offered free legal documents. I clicked on one of sites and the home page displayed all of their free legal documents. So I made some chicks and came to a page that said create your document, I answered question after question after about 30 or 40 minutes then finally  create your document appeared on the screen. I Clicked on it and what appears well it wasn’t my document, it was a page telling I would have to pay $20 for my document. Now I wasn’t paying anything for the document, the$20 was for joining some kind of club or something I really couldn’t tell what the $20 was going for, All I was sure of, my free document was going to cost me $20. You may ask how are these crooks getting by with this? All of the free legal documents sites are ran by lawyers, oh, I guess that explains it. I think all this paying for free stuff on the internet was started by free credit. com they had a lot of commercials on television years ago where they claimed you could get a free credit report, but at the end of each commercial it would be said requires enrollment which was only $59. So the credit report was free all you had to do was pay them $59 to get your free credit report. Now there are commercials that say you can a truly free credit report but they don’t say how much you have to pay to get the truly free credit report. So the word free does not mean what it used to.

The word simple doesn’t mean what it used to before the internet. When I was setting up Jeff’ song of the day I found video after video telling everyone how simple it is to set up a blob. One video said that it was so simple and easy that it should only take 5 minutes to set a blog up. I been working with this blog for over a week and one thing that a blog is not, that’s simple. Who knew the internet could be so complicated? —- that would be me Simple Jeff!

Hey Mr. Taxi

I’m trying to understand the fascination people have with becoming an Uber driver. Do these people not  understand that they are cab drivers, not that there’s anything wrong with that. When I was in elementary school  I don’t remember anyone saying “when I grow up I want to drive a taxi”.  Back then I didn’t think that people wanting to be a taxi driver who ever be a thing. The way I understand it driving for Uber you use your own car and work anytime you feel like it. That sounds good it’s sorta like being your own boss, setting the hours or minutes you want to work, driving your own car. I could see how that would be someone’s dream job. But what happens when You pick up some drunk who throws up all over your back seat or maybe on the back of your neck, just saying, I still don’t see how this would be a dream job. Today’s song, Hey Mr. Taxi, is an Osmond song about a bad experience with a taxi driver.  In defense of the taxi driver, let’s say that your an Uber driver and your back seat is full of Osmonds, that may make you a little wacky.

You may ask me, Jeff if driving your own car with a bunch of drunk people in the back is not your dream job what is?  I’m glad you asked because a do have a dream job. A job that only a few have, but it’s the greatest job ever! I’m sure most of you also have this job as a goal in life. This job is, of coarse, getting in shopping carts at Walmart! Could you even imagine how fun it would be pushing all those carts together {I guess people that shop at Walmart don’t know that the shopping go together} then after you get then you can take your special rope, that’s right you get to use your special rope, then you drag a bunch of them back into the store impressing all of the babes along the way. But that’s not the best part of my dream job at Walmart. At Walmart there is a machine where you attach shopping carts to, a whole bunch of shopping carts, then you stand in the front with a remote and then you can drive that long row of shopping carts, it’s just like you become a train engineer ( that was my first dream job). I don’t want it to make it sound like I’m making fun of the hard-working people of Walmart, wait a minute, come to think of it back in 1988 I was one of the hard-working people at Walmart. I worked  at a Walmart distribution center, there wasn’t any shopping carts there just millions of shoes. What I’m about to tell you can only happen at Walmart. Back in 1988 I worked for a temporary agency at the Walmart distribution on Painter Road. I worked there a few weeks when the boss gave all us temps a job application. I took my application home and filled it out. The next day I went in for my interview , I sat down the interviewer took my application looked at it and said, and I’m not making this up, The interviewer said with a real puzzled look on his face, “You mean you  typed your application why did you do that you typed it why did you do that, you typed it?”  How exactly was I suppose to answer that? Yes I know it was just Walmart, then again it is Walmart I’m guessing that was the first application he saw that was typed and he just didn’t know how to take it. I guess  if I really wanted the job I should had used a crayon. But what if I choose the wrong color? It might be that I’m the first person ever who didn’t get the job because he typed his application!  Don’t forget to come back tomorrow and will have another story about another song.

Half Breed

There is always an attempt in the Sunday morning church service to have a coronation between the music service with that of the sermon. For instance, if is the sermon is on thanks then the music should be about thanks. Or if the sermon is about the Cross then the music should be about the cross.  This brings us to the song for today which is what is now an old song and one of Cher’s first hits. But if you listen to the song, it’s not a song of praise or thanks or a song anything about love. No it’s a song about hate, in particular it’s a song about racial hatred. Was there racial hatred in the Bible and did Jesus have anything to say about it? Now listen to todays’ song.

In the tenth chapter of Luke Jesus is having a conversation will a Jewish lawyer, imagine that a Jewish lawyer! Starting at the twenty fifth verse the Bible says:  25. And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tested him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26. He said unto him, ?What is written in the law? How readest thou ? 27. he, answering, said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and they neighbor as thyself. 28. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right; this do,and thou shalt live.  29. But he, desiring to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? 30. And Jesus, answering, said,Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his raiment, and  A certain man went down from Jerusalem to wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him. and passed by on the other side. 33. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where  he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34.And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and  took care of him. 35. And on the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatever thou spendest more, when  I come again, I will repay thee. 36.Which , now, of these three, thinkest thou, as neighbor unto him  that fell among thieves? 37. And he said, He that showed mercy on him, Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. —   What do think that the priest would say if he was asked why he didn’t stop and help. He might had said that when he saw the man it reminded him of his favorite scripture; God helps those who help themselves. You do know that” God helps those who help themselves”is not in the Bible anywhere, you would think that as many pages that there are in the Bible that would be in there somewhere! Since this man didn’t look like he was doing anything to help himself, then he gave me no reason to help the priest would say. And then what about the Levite what would he say? He might would say when I saw the man lying there I thought by the way that man looked he was here in this country illegally, he looked like he’s from a country where everyone’s from that country are rapist! If he lied there and died then that would be one less illegal rapist in our country! Now it’s time to discuss the Good Samaritan, who were the Samaritans? The Samaritans were Jews who married Gentiles this made them and wait for it——–half breeds, thus today’s song. The Jews hated the Samaritans with all their hearts and with all their souls and that’s right they hated the Samaritans with all their minds. The Jews considered the Samaritans unclean and a good Jew would not even speak to a Samaritan. If you will notice when Jesus asked the Jewish lawyer which of the three were a neighbor to the man. He said it was the one who showed mercy on him, he didn’t say it was the Samaritan because a good Jew wouldn’t even say the word Samaritan. Who knew that the story of the Good Samaritan was so complicated?
HOW DOES THE GOOD SAMARITAN APPLY TO US TODAY?
Suppose for a moment that after he helped the man the good Samaritan felt that it was his life’s calling to give everyone healthcare, he could call it Samaritan-care. Who do you suppose would be the most against Samaritan-care or for that matter anything that a Samaritan would do? My guess would be the priest and the Levite, the leaders of the church. That’s what is happening today, the leaders of the church are standing up against Obama-care because of the same reason they would back in Jesus time, that is racial hatred. The Republicans are against Obama-care for one reason–Obama is black! They are against anything a black man does. Of coarse if you go to church everyone will tell you that because Obamas black has nothing to do with it, Jesus is against Obama-care!  They must know a passage of scripture where Jesus says to let those people on the side of the road die. And I’m sure they know a scripture where Jesus says not to give any of your money to someone just because they are in need. I would really like one of these church people tell me with chapter and verse exactly where Jesus joined the Republican Party.
SHOULD WE BE LIKE THE GOOD SAMARITIAN?
After the lawyer answered Jesus that the one who showed mercy was the neighbor , Jesus said Go, and do thou likewise. Jesus didn’t said, Go, if you feel like it, he didn’t say Go, if you have the time, he didn’t said, Go, if it will make you famous, Jesus said Go, and do thou likewise. This is what is know as a command of Jesus, A Christian does not have the option to leave someone on the side of the road. Maybe you have never looked on the story of the Good Samaritan like this, maybe you should. Tomorrow I will have another song that’s kind of a Christmas song.

I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas

Today’s the day that I promised to have the most annoying Christmas song ever.  Some may have thought that the most annoying Christmas song would be “Grandma Got run Over by a Reindeer” that’s just the second most annoying Christmas song. The Winner of the most annoying Christmas song is ” I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas”. I first heard this song a couple of years ago, then last year this song was on a commercial what they were selling I really don’t remember, but I can’t believe that someone thought this song could sell anything. This peaked at #24 on the Billboard magazine pop chart of December of 1953. Besides this song being annoying and this girl who thinks she’s so cute but she isn’t. There is something that is not, let’s say truthful, the little girl says that her mom told The hippopotamus would eat her but her teacher says that hippopotamus are vegetarians, but if you goggle hippopotamus killing people, you’ll read about how hippopotamus kill around 3,000 people a year. I could be wrong, but I think this is why Hippopotamus do not make very good pets. I’m sorry if I disappointed you if you was planning on giving on of your kids or grandkids a hippo for Christmas. So if you have never heard this song now you can hear the most annoying Christmas song of all time.

This is the video is from the Ed Sullivan show in October of 1953. I guess this song was popular for a while in the early 50’s but it didn’t stand the test of time like Rudolf and Frosty. The girl who sang this song is from Oklahoma City. When the song first came on the radio a Oklahoma DJ started a fundraiser to give this girl a real hippopotamus. The fundraiser worked so well that they raised enough money to buy a real hippopotamus. I guess in the early 50’s they would have bought it at Hippo-Mart. She donated the hippo to the Oklahoma City Zoo where the hippo lived for fifty years and as far as I can tell the hippo didn’t kill anyone at the zoo.

My Christmas Card To You

Thanksgiving is over and it’s time for the Christmas season . Since my blog is Jeffs Song of the Day it’s time to play Christmas music.  I love everything Christmas but I don’t start my Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. I’m not going to have a Christmas song every day as the song of the day, but I do plan on having several.  I enjoy listening to the Christmas songs that I grew up with.  Today we call these songs and carols traditional Christmas. The problem I have with traditional Christmas songs is that after I listen to one after the other a notice that nearly everyone singing those songs are now dead. I find that a little bit depressing that singing about the Most Happiest time on the Year, oh yeah Andy Williams is dead too. Well at least we can still listen to me and my sister’s favorite Christmas album and that would be the Partridge Family Christmas album. But as you might know the woman who played the little girl, Traci, died early this year and a couple days ago David Cassidy died.  The only people that really sang on the Partridge Family were Shirley Jones and David Cassidy the backup singers were not any of the kids on the show. One of the songs on that album is now one of mine very favorite Christmas songs.

I hope that you have just listened to My Christmas Card To You, if you never heard this song maybe it will become one of your favorites too, even though now it’s another Christmas song sung by  a dead guy. Hey the guy drunk himself to death, but here’s the key, when you listen to these Christmas songs just don’t think about stuff like that. Another thing you can do is listen to current singers that sing these same songs, but it seems to me that it’ just not the same.  Tomorrow I have the most annoying Christmas song ever. I think after you hear it you will agree with me.

Count Your Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving!  This day is the set aside for us to count our blessings. The hymn Count Your Blessings was Mama’s favorite. When Mama died and we planned her funeral there was no question what song we would play. My Mama was in bad health all my life. After Mama had lung surgery in Dallas in 1964, when I was two, the doctor said to Daddy that Mama would only live about a year.  Mama was truly thankful for each day of life she was so proud when she turned 70 years old , that God allowed Mama to live so long.  Now that you know a little of Mama’s life story, it’s plain to see why Count Your Blessings was Mama’s favorite .

When we would sing this hymn in church most of time we would skip the third verse I don’t know why that’s something that Baptist liked to do. But when you the words of the third verse why would you want to skip over this; when you look at other’s with their lands and gold, think that Christ has promised you wealth untold ; count your many blessings, money  cannot buy Your reward in Heaven, nor your home on high. That verse was written in 1897 long before we heard sermons about how Jesus wants you to be rich! Throughout all this hymn is simply great words: When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear? Do not be discouraged ,thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the has done; Do not be discouraged , God is over all; count your blessings, angels will attend help and comfort give you to your journey’s end;  Have a happy Thanksgiving and don’t forget to count your blessings———every day!

The Colors of the Wind

This is going to be my attempt to do something which may sound like an impossible task. I’m going to try to explain President Trumps tweets about Senator Elizabeth Warren.  In 2012 when she ran for the US Senate she said that she is part Cherokee and maybe part Delaware Indian. Senator Warren is from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It’s been my experience that a lot of people from Oklahoma will say that they have some Indian blood, that’s what they call it, Indian blood in them. When someone tell me that they are part Indian I don’t reply by saying  “show  me your documentation” but that’s what happened when her Republican challenger disputed her claim of Indian heritage. Now how childish can you get? It turns out that another child heard about this, his name is Donald Trump. In his tweets, the president refers to Senator Warren as  “Pocahontas” he thinks that’s so funny and everyone will laugh when they read it.  However, there’s nothing at all  funny about The President of the United States using what is now a racial slur about a member of the US Senate.——————— There are a lot of different people singing this song because “Pocahontas” has become so popular. This is from the Disney animated movie I have always liked this song because it tells of the difference between how Native American looked at life and our place in the world compared to how these new white people, who by the way were in their country illegally, looked at things.

Just yesterday the White House announced that the over 60,000 Haitians which were allowed to come to the United States after the 2010 earthquake must leave our white country! But that subject will be with another song for another day.                                        Now back to our presidents hatred of Native Americans,Trump showed the world how he feels about Native Americans his first few days in office.  President Trump placed a portrait of President Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office. In order to understand what this meant you need to know some American history. Andrew Jackson sighed the Indian Removable Act of 1830.  Native Americans in the Southeast were taken from their homes and forced by the US Army, to march out of what was in 1830 The United States of America.  The march was called “The Trail of Tears” it was called that because of all the misery and death , the number of those who died is not clear it is believed  between 2,000 or up to 10,000 Native American died on the trail.  Don’t be fooled President Trump  knows exactly what is meant by placing Andrew Jackson’s portrait in the Oval Office. He’s telling the whole world that it’s OK to remove people from the United States because of their race. I would also like to point out that not only does President Trump admires Andrew Jackson he was also admired and studied by Hitler. Hitler once said that what he was doing to the Jews was no different than what Andrew Jackson did to the Indians in  America. When I was growing up I was always taught that it was wrong to call people names. What are today’s Trump supporters teaching their children when they praise the president’s tweets calling people names. They will teach their children that President Trump is not being ” politically correct” and that is good. But what they are really teaching their children is there is no difference between right and wrong, and calling someone a name is still wrong. My hope is at least a few people who read my blob will have their eyes opened and decide to do what is right.

I Got a Name

When I was trying to start my blog I decided to goggle my own name. It turns out there are a lot of people named Jeff Mann. The most famous Jeff Mann are on the right side with their pictures and a short bio. One Jeff Mann is a production designer and producer for movies such as Transformers, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Tropic Thunder. That’s just fine I think that’s great that there’s a Jeff Mann that makes movies. The next Jeff Mann is a writer who has written a lot of books. The first problem I have with this is I hope to write a book or two and of coarse whatever book I wrote would be  written by Jeff Mann.  I can’t do that now because there is already a Jeff Mann writing books. Yes I Got A Name but I can’t use my own name

Like me you may say that you have never heard of a writer named Jeff Mann. There’s a reason for that .  Jeff Mann has won an award for his writing. In 2006 he won the Lambda literary Award for Gay’s Men’s Erotica. That’s right Jeff Mann writes gay porn! Before you laugh too much I would suggest that you goggle your name and see if anyone is writing gay porn with your name. What to do next should I change my name. No I’ve got a better idea and believe it or not I got this idea from a real estate commercial I can become the Not Gay Jeff Mann! So when some one asks you did you read what Jeff Mann wrote the other day? And then you say you mean A History of barred wire? ( I’m not making this up that’s the title of one of Jeff Mann’s books)  You can say not that Jeff Mann I’m talking about Not Gay Jeff Mann. OK maybe the whole Not Gay Jeff Mann is not that great of an idea. I suppose when I write my books they will have to be by Jeffrey Dean Mann. The problem with that is every time I look at my book and it’s by Jeffrey Dean Mann I will think that Mamas mad at me. That would make me one of those three name writers witch makes me appear to be a little snooty, but just plain Jeff Mann sounds friendly. Then again do I really have to change my name? The current Jeff Mann writes gay porn and I which will be the future writer named Jeff Mann will write Bible-based books. Some writers would call that ironic. But there would still be a possibility that people will get the two Jeff Mann’s mixed up. There’s a rule in the Screen Actor Guild that no two actors shall have the same name. For instance, Michael Keaton real name is Michael Douglas. I could see how that could be a problem but when Michael Keaton changed his name Michael Douglas was already a big star. How many of you knew that there was a gay porn writer named Jeff Mann before reading this? I have one more idea that might solve my problem, I could still be Jeff Mann but I could spell my last name with only one n. That would still make me Jeff Man I don’t know if that would work but it sounds like a better idea than Not Gay Jeff Mann! Of coarse none of this matters if I don’t get busy and write a book.